If you’re in Liverpool, why on earth would you get tested?

[guitarstringseadgbe]

I just don’t understand why healthy people would get tested and encourage more lockdowns?

Anyone in Liverpool? What are people’s thoughts on this mass testing?

Amazed they can source so many tests for Liverpool but left 60 vulnerable elderly people waiting for tests for 5 days in a supported living building where 2 had tested positive. Priorities eh?

Because we are had already been in Tier 3 restrictions and this might get us out of that sooner.

Because our local hospital capacity is clearly desperate (due to Carillion going bust before finishing the new Royal Hosp)

Because so many jobs have already been lost

Though the cosmic scouser conspiracy theorist brigade are having a field day claiming we're all getting chipped through nanobots on the swabs, of course.

@Nannewnannew

I’m concerned about whether the way the tests are done are effective. 2 people have told me that pre hospital Covid tests were very painful as the swabs went right to the back of their throat and very high up in their nose. When watching tv news last evening a man was doing a test on himself with somebody watching and he was literally swabbing the inside of his cheeks, like they do with DNA tests. Are there 2 different tests or is the self test ineffective if not performed properly? I would be interested to hear from any testers.

My understanding from the news was that people testing positive with the cheek test would be retested using the swab test to confirm.

I'm in Liverpool. Whilst I agree that it is the right thing to do I feel like we've been thrown to the wolves. Many people can't work from home (i.e the jaguar/landrover plant) or aren't in the kind of job that will pay them to isolate whilst waiting on test results or for a 14 day quarantine. I also have serious concerns about the number of false positives reported.
I appreciate that this is a sweeping generalisation (and probably inaccurate) but I can't help but think that somewhere in the home counties where people can work at home or have better company benefits may have been a better guinea pig.

I would, because I have vulnerable colleagues who are also my friends, and if there was a way to reduce the risk of my spreading it to them I'd want to take it. I ccould take the time off with full pay though and understand why people might be reluctant if they aren't able to do that.

I don't think it encourages lockdowns as, if it works, it will drive down infection rates in the city pretty quickly and make them less likely to be subject to future restrictions. The first couple of weeks might be chaotic though, and I've heard that they're making preparations for part time schooling on a case by case basis as it's expected to cause a lot of disruption initially.

Is the op for real? Not everyone has symptoms. What don't you understand about that?
Liverpool has a high number of cases so they are testing everyone they can to see what's going on. Not difficult to understand really.

Ponoka

A lot of that simply isn’t true

Things haven’t been cancelled - but that’s why it’s busy - because this time they’re treating covid and normal stuff - cancer treatment is very much still happening

Yes it’s busy but my doctor friend - consultant at aintree hospital - said it’s still the typical at risk groups and she still says it’s no issue for those who are healthy or the young.

There’s only one young patient in aintree and she’s doing ok - out of over 100 so saying it’s full of young people is simply not true

Yes it’s busy but it’s always busy this time of year and worth mentioning that many who have covid in hospital are in hospital for other things but happen to have covid

More have picked it up in hospital

In terms of testing most people I’ve seen in queues or who’ve said they’ll be tested are the older at risk groups who are likely abiding by rules anyway - all those wiring today obviously weren’t at work so likely not mixing as much anyway

Your typical young worker or student isn’t going to test

I get full sick pay to isolate and like most I know still have no intention of being tested

There's two ways of looking at it.

Mass testing = more cases = higher R rate = longer lockdowns.

Mass testing = more cases = isolate and trace can be used more effectively = less people walking around with the virus unknowingly = get cases down in the long run

The concern in the city is hospital capacity. Case wise it just had that really bad exponential rise in September as soon as the schools went back and the University students flooded in. It's eased off but it's now dealing with the aftermath in terms of hospitalisations.

I’m a scouser and not planning on venturing into town!

Am in Liverpool. Because Jurgen Klopp has asked us to !

Anyone going "I'm not getting tested cos I might not be able to work" when they might in fact be spreading to who knows how many other people is in essence selfishness

I take you are isolating and taking Time off work unpaid on the off chance you could be asymptomatic too??

@guitarstringseadgbe I just don’t understand why healthy people would get tested and encourage more lockdowns? it won’t be the healthy people though will it , will be those who test positive!

I would only do, if it meant I can go give my DP’s a hug. But I’m selfish.

@3littlewords And can presumably financially afford to isolate for 2 weeks if positive. Lucky you!
It’s possible to be poor and still not selfish! There are people who put others lives before struggling with bills and visiting a food bank.

I am in Liverpool. I live just outside the city boundary and I'm working from home at the moment, so I'm not eligible for the free testing. If I was, I'd do it.

DH works in the city, so he is eligible. He is going to get tested.

We are fortunate to be able to afford to isolate if one of us gets it, but DH wouldn't get full pay so it will make things hard. But we think it's worth it.

Why the hell wouldn't we?!

They are trialling a mass testing programme. Which appears to be failing but that's another issue. Why would you not want to be part of a trial that, if it works, means the economy can reopen with more confidence?

I would get tested if I lived there - that way there is more information to get us out of this BoJoballsup

I’m tested every week as part of the national statistics survey. It never occurred to me that some people may not want to know and carry on spreading it. Bloody hell.
I won’t get paid sick by the way. I’ve already had two weeks off when we had to isolate a while back and I’m still making up the time.

Because they may look healthy but be asymptomatic and spread it

@TeenPlusTwenties Thank you, that has made it much clearer.

So that I can ease my mind slightly of the thought that I will carry the virus asymptotically to a family member.

I'm in Liverpool and got tested today at a walk in test centre. It was a swab test that I did myself.

There was a huge variety of different ages of people in the queue including lots of teenagers/kids with their parents. Queue was all socially distanced, people wearing masks and almost all outdoors so felt safe.

I am a health care worker and my hospital hasnt yet started testing staff routinely. I was a bit nervous in case I tested positive and then couldn't go to work as I would put burden on colleagues......but much better than giving them COVID unknowingly!

As someone else said it doesnt need everyone in the city to get tested, just enough of us to find a chunk of the asymptomatic cases would help. Mass testing alone isnt going to bring the cases to zero in liverpool but it's a start.

@Nannewnannew

I’m concerned about whether the way the tests are done are effective. 2 people have told me that pre hospital Covid tests were very painful as the swabs went right to the back of their throat and very high up in their nose. When watching tv news last evening a man was doing a test on himself with somebody watching and he was literally swabbing the inside of his cheeks, like they do with DNA tests. Are there 2 different tests or is the self test ineffective if not performed properly? I would be interested to hear from any testers.

There are different types of tests.

I got a nose test, no throat one. It was indeed very uncomfortable.

I presume the cheek test is one of the new rapid results ones.

@Mydogisagentleman

Because some people can be asymptomatic carriers. My 19 year old went to university in Nottingham. 3 weeks later she phoned us with these glad tidings

I do hope Liverpudlians will get tested. I would, just because I am interested to see the general profile of asymptomatic carriers in a city. We get all the stats about level of daily infections circulating in the population but do we really know? Could it also be the government wants to do this to assess the probable impact of mass or targeted vaccination schemes as well as reduce local transmission rates?